Commie kitsch in Stasiland

21 June 2008 — 10:00am

The pre-Wall era is a tourism magnet for the German capital and visitors can sample everything from spy tours to period living rooms. Cathrin Schaer soaks it up.

You could be forgiven for wondering why the former residents of the Eastern Bloc would feel nostalgic about their old lives. Who could harbour fondness for the memory of surveillance by neighbours in the service of secret police? For a time when there was little chance of ever leaving the country, when everyone queued for bread and vodka and, if they were lucky, waited five years to be given a car that ran like a lawnmower?

When my West Berlin grandfather took me to East Berlin in the early '80s, I can remember, even as a child, noticing the difference: one side seemed colourful, crowded, exciting; and on the other, the wide grey streets were empty and the soup we had for lunch in a deserted restaurant was watery.

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Nonetheless "ostalgie" is alive and well in Berlin. In German, "ost" means east, so the word "ostalgie" has become shorthand for nostalgia for everything typical of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or German Democratic Republic.

Perhaps this is fair enough. When Germany reunified in 1989, East Germans - who had held jobs and apartments for life - were faced with unemployment, homelessness, a future of political and economic uncertainty and prejudice from their wealthier cousins in the west.

At first former citizens of the GDR rejoiced in their rejection of the past. But by the mid-1990s, industries in the eastern half of the country were failing and the former East Germans, or "Ossis" as they are known, were bearing the brunt of the economic crisis.

Some folk started to get misty-eyed about the way they were, which is why films such as Goodbye Lenin! and the Oscar-winning The Lives Of Others have been controversial. The first makes life in the former GDR look like a kitsch in-joke; the latter portrays a member of the Stasi, the notorious East German secret police, as heroic.

These days there's not a lot to distinguish East from West Berlin. The wall has been reduced to a couple of artist-decorated metres for tourists to look at and a trail of paving stones in which you could easily catch a high heel if you weren't careful. And no man's land, the barbed-wire frontier between two opposing political systems guarded by soldiers, is now populated by trendy boutiques and cute cafes. Once you would have been shot dead for walking here; now all you need to worry about is how your hair is looking and your credit-card limit.

My day in the former GDR begins with a bunch of hungover Irishmen on a stag's weekend. Berlin now has a reputation for being a good place to party and plenty of Irishmen and Britons, and other nationalities, come here to sightsee, then sit quietly in sidewalk cafes drinking fine German beer until the nightclubs open. That's where the Irishmen have been until recently, so when we turn up at the same time for a "Trabi safari", I'm given the wheel.

Just as the Volkswagen was the West German people's car, the Trabant belonged to the East Germans. They puff clouds of smoke, they're unreliable, they sound like lawnmowers and they go just about as fast. But they look cartoonish and, if you've never had to maintain one, they're adorable.

The streets of East Berlin used to be crowded with Trabis, as they're known, but now the old models have been practically legislated out of existence (all that smoke), which is why the Trabant has become a collector's item, a moving mascot of a bygone era. (There are plans to revive the Trabant, albeit with a BMW engine, such is the strength of ostalgie.)

The owners of this tour company used to own a wurst stand in the middle of town - a typical snack shack selling beer, chips and sausages. Their rooftop decoration was an old Trabant. "And people kept asking us whether they could drive it," says the girl behind the counter. So they gathered up all the Trabant owners they could find and started a tour company - now there are up to 160 vehicles available. If you arrive early in the day, you'll get to choose your car - that's how I ended up driving a fire-engine red convertible on a beautiful day.

So the gears are column shift, the indicators are on the wrong side and the car goes from rest to 20 in, oh, about 10 minutes. But the Trabant is a lot of fun to drive. My Irish co-pilots and I are in a line of about eight, multi-coloured Trabants, driving along at a mere 20 kilometres an hour.

"I feel like Dick Dastardly," says one of the Irishmen. "I feel like I've been sucking on an exhaust pipe for the last half hour," says another, looking a bit green. The third Irishman has fallen asleep in the back seat, in the sunshine.

There's a commentary coming over our radio, provided by the tour guide in the lead car, and although it's interesting we don't pay it the attention we should. We're having too much fun driving our relic. Our rainbow of cars collects surprised looks from tourists and locals; small, delighted children wave at us.

In the afternoon I plan a more serious pursuit. The Nest of Spies walking tour, run by the Berlin Walks tour company, covers Berlin's history of covert operations. The mostly fascinating four-hour stroll through central Berlin explores everything from the memorial to Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the leaders of a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, to the location of the escape tunnels dug under the Berlin Wall. We learn about the "Romeo spies", men and women who were trained in lovemaking, then sent from the East to seduce West German officials and foreign diplomats and extract information during the Cold War.

The tour is well worth EUR12 ($19.70). The highlight for me comes at the end, when we finish outside the former headquarters of the East German secret police, the Stasi. They built and maintained one of the most elaborate and extensive surveillance operations in the world, fostering a culture that saw children informing on parents and employees on managers. And all the information was sent to the Stasi offices, now a museum. When the wall came down these buildings were ransacked by an angry populace; there they found 40 million names on file, 6.5 million of which were suspected of wrongdoing of some sort.

The office of Erich Mielke, minister for state security and one of the most powerful and feared men in the GDR, is in what appears to be its original state: all coarse blue wool upholstery and wood veneer. Also on display is the "technology of paranoia": luggage designed to hide weapons; miniature spy cameras concealed in fake wooden logs and on coat buttons; and the glass jars used to collect personal items that could later, supposedly, be used to track a person's scent.

The cafe, just down the hall from Mielke's office, was once used by the Stasi's top brass. Sit back in the dark brown vinyl armchairs amid the plastic flowers and lace tablecloths, have a cup of tea and a dry biscuit from the tea trolley and, seriously, it almost feels like Mielke is there.

After this sobering experience, it's time for a drink. This evening's Eastern-bloc-themed bar crawl takes in two destinations in what was once East Berlin. A stroll down Kastanien Allee in Prenzlauer Berg is Gorki Park. This cafe features traditional Russian foods such as borscht and decorations carefully copied from the Russian underground train stations. I'll wash that brown bread and pickles down with two shots of Russian vodka, thanks. The decor here is stylish and the atmosphere is hip.

When we tire of watching the well-dressed, good-looking locals, we head for Tagung, another Russian-themed bar but in the art-ghetto district of Friedrichshain. The place is dimly lit and crowded, its walls bristling with GDR kitsch: old calendars and cigarette advertisements, Russian and German flags, statues of Lenin. You could spend hours in here on the rough wooden benches, simply examining the walls.

Appropriately late, we head back to our hotel. Ostel combines the German "ost", with the word hotel. Opened a year ago and heavily booked, the self-described "DDR design hotel" is in an old East German apartment block on the outskirts of Prenzlauer Berg.

The foyer and rooms have been decorated with original furniture from the former GDR: yellow plastic lampshades, wood veneer furniture, orange and lime wallpaper, bulbous silver floor lamps. And the overall impression is of some fantastic retro furniture store. It's only the old map of Germany, before the reunification, that gives the East German decorating concept away.

"We get a 50-50 mixture of foreigners and Germans here," says Liliana, the receptionist. "When it's Germans they tend to be over 30; they come in and say they feel like they're reliving their youth. I had one man in here with tears in his eyes - he said it was exactly like it was earlier." She anticipates my next question before I ask. "Yes, we have had one email telling us that the DDR was evil and we shouldn't be recreating it. But most people [who used to live in East Germany] tell us that if [the DDR] wasn't all good, then it wasn't all bad either. So it's not a joke for them.

"Yes, people that come here do see the irony and the humour and the interest - but we don't make fun of it either."

And as I drift off to sleep, under a portrait of Erich Honecker, a former leader of the GDR, I decide that is the most succinct comment on the subject of "ostalgie" I've heard all day.

FAST FACTS

Getting there

Swiss Airlines has a fare for $1720 flying with a partner airline to Asia and then Swiss via a change of aircraft in Zurich. Malaysia Airlines flies to Amsterdam for $1588 with a change of aircraft in Kuala Lumpur and then with KLM to Berlin. All fares are low-season return from Sydney and Melbourne and do not include tax.

While you're there

* A tour of Berlin in an old Trabant with TrabiSafari costs EUR30- EUR40 ($49-$66), depending on the number of passengers, maximum of four a car. Both tours -"Classic" and "Wild East" - take about an hour. See http://www.trabi-safari.de.

* Berlin Walks does city tours based on different subjects, from Third Reich sites to modern architecture. Three- to four-hour walks cost EUR12- EUR15 and often include short trips on public transport. See http://www.berlinwalks.com.

* A visit to the offices of the former Ministry for State Security would have once inspired dread. Now they're open daily to visitors. Entry is EUR4. 103 Ruschestrasse, Mitte. See http://www.stasi-museum.de.

* There are several Eastern bloc-inspired restaurants in Berlin. One of the best-known is Gorki Park, 25 Weinbergsweg, Prenzlauer Berg. See http://www.gorki-park.de. Also recommended is Tagung at 29 Wuhlischstrasse, Friedrichshain. Phone +49 30 292 8756.

* For a quick taste of the former East Berlin, visit the interactive DDR Design Museum. There is a Trabant you can turn on (but not drive) and a typical East Berlin living room where you can sit and watch old television broadcasts. Entry is EUR5.50. 1 Karl-Liebknecht-Str, Mitte. See http://www.ddr-museum.de.

* There are plenty of kitsch souvenirs. Ostel sells miniature Trabants ( EUR5) and pictures of Erich Honecker and also has an online store. For something more modern, Redspective sells art and designs with an Eastern European flavour. 18 Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. See http://www.redspective.com. One of the city's best flea markets is held on Sundays at Mauerpark in the Prenzlauer Berg area, near some of the last remaining, upright pieces of the Berlin Wall.

More information

Berlin's public transport system is punctual, clean, efficient and safe. Don't buy single fares; buy a day, week or weekend pass. There's also a tourist special for about $30 that includes discounts to various attractions.

Beds with retro charm at the Ostel cost from EUR10 a night for a shared bunkroom to EUR120 for an apartment that sleeps six. You'll also find double rooms with or without bathrooms from EUR30. 5 Wriezener Karree, Friedrichshain. See www.ostel.eu.